Monday, October 25, 2010

Creating A Schedule

I am not a very organized person and I have a really hard time sticking to a daily schedule, but we definitely need more order in our house.  Every single day I think:  "where did all the hours go?  Why did I not get done anywhere close to all the tasks that I needed to do today?".  I am tired of feeling overwhelmed and discouraged with managing my home and my life!  So, today I sat down and brainstormed about creating a schedule that might actually work for my family.  I am ready to give it my best shot, so we'll see what happens!  Here's what I am hoping will work for my family:

  • 6:00 am- Me:  get up, shower, dressed, ect..  and take our dog on a walk.
  • 7:00 am- make breakfast, feed our animals.
  • 7:45 am- Clean up breakfast
  • 9:00-10:00 am- activities with my son (arts and crafts, learning activities, play a game, ect..)
  • 10:00-10:45 am- Quick clean up involving my son, more cleaning for me- including a twice weekly cleaning task (such as clean out the cat litter box, clean bathrooms, vacuum all floors, mop hard floors- I know some of you may think these tasks need done everyday, but that is not realistic for me- maybe a goal for me, but I would be setting myself up for failure if I decided I needed to do these everday)
  • 11:30 am- make lunch
  • 12:00 am- clean up from lunch
  • 12:15 pm- Read books with my son
  • 12:45-2:24 pm- Quiet time/ nap time for my son.
  • 2:45 pm- snack time
  • 3:30-4:30- activities with my son
  • 4:30 pm- start preparing dinner if needed (such as if meat needs marinated or something like that)
  • 6:00 pm- eat dinner
  • 6:30 pm- clean up from dinner (we have no dishwasher so clean up is not a favorite task of mine- I have somehow talked my husband into doing the dinner clean up if I prepare him a home cooked meal :)
  • 6:30-7:30 pm- family activity (go on a walk, hike, play a game, watch a video, ect..)
  • 7:30 pm- quick 10 minute clean up involving the whole family
  • 7:40-8:30 pm- relaxation time, read a book out-loud (I want to try reading some of the classic chapter books out-loud, but I am not sure my son is ready for this yet), or read a couple stories with my son, bathe my son
  • 8:30 pm- put my son to bed
  • 8:45 pm- do a load of laundry
At least every week-end I will try to get done a once-monthly cleaning task (such as clean leather furniture, clean out the fridge, ect..) as well as some of my once-weekly tasks (plan out our menus, get stains out of the carpet, wash all our bedding).  I really tried not to make this schedule too strict- I have several undesignated hours in every day- otherwise I know it will be way too hard for me to stick to!  Of course this schedule will only work for the next several months, if I start going to school again, that will be a whole new plan.  Do you schedule your time?  If you do, are you naturally a super organized person?  How do you make a schedule work and get yourself to actually follow it?  I have a hard time staying on track when all those unexpected things come up that are not part of my schedule.  If you have no schedule that you are currently working from- I first sat down and wrote down most of the things that need done to keep our house running smoothly.  Then I plugged them in throughout the day in the way that I felt like they would work best for my family.  I am thinking about having my schedule laminated and putting it up on my fridge so I see it all day, without having to go find it- until it becomes a normal part of our day.

2 comments:

  1. I am a scheduler. I work full time, so I don't clean nearly as much as I should. I really used to be a super clean freak, but I have really had to let that go so that I can have time to do fun things with my family and take time for myself. My house is always picked up, the kitchen dishes always kept up, but all the other stuff just gets done here and there when I have a few minutes. My husband also does the dishes. He is home in the evening first so he actually cooks too. However, I do all the menu planning and shopping and I think that takes a lot of the work out of cooking dinner. Before I started menu planning it would be 6pm and we would be looking at each other wondering what's for dinner. Not anymore. Good luck with your schedule. I always thought I'd like to stay home rather than work, but I doubt I'd ever get much done anyway.

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  2. Good luck, Anna! I have to admit...I started out the beginning of October making myself a daily schedule. I work from home and it is important that I have a daily schedule so that I stay on task and don't get distracted with doing laundry or dishes when I really need to be working. Well, I did awesome for a couple of weeks! Then...I ran out of printed copies of my daily calendar and got off track again. It is amazing to me how much better I did managing my time when I had that little piece of paper (the daily calendar) sitting in front of me on my desk. I seriously need to print out more!

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